...And the sooner I bury them again, the better. Of course, we can't ignore Al Jolson, the most famous blackface minstrel of them all. Here, he performs his theme song, "My Mammy," in an electrical recording from the 30's, along with the acoustic, vocal version of "Coal Black Mammy," made in 1920. Jolson did a lot of this type of material, even into the 1940's when it wasn't fashionable to "black up" any more (he died in 1950). My personal favorite of his is a number from 1912 called, "You Ain't No Relation Of Mine," about a black man who keeps trying to join various lodges (the Elks, the Moose, and so on), but they all reject him. The song is still funny, and not offensive— it actually takes a poke at predjudice. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of it.
Even though "Coon" humor was out of vogue by the 40's, Tommy Dorsey and his Clambake Seven covered "If The Man In The Moon Were A Coon" in 1941, surprisingly enough. I don't have that record either, but I've seen it in someone else's collection.
Billy Murray and the American Quartet's "Medley Of Negro Songs" is a real time capsule; it's exactly what you would have heard in a vaudeville house in 1910, with the white performers all in blackface, and with a little minstrel "patter" thrown in. Murray may be the ultimate example of how "fame is fleeting," since he made thousands of records for dozens of companies over a career that started in the 1890's and only ended when he developed heart trouble in the 1940's. When sound film came in, he did cartoon voices for Max Fleischer, and his duets with a succession of female partners (Ada Jones, Elsie Baker, Aileen Stanley, and others), were particularly big sellers— but today, his name is known only to record collectors and music historians. In a true showbiz ending, Billy died of a heart attack while attending a theatrical performance in 1954.
Now, excuse me while I finish putting on the burnt cork; it's showtime!
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